Swing low, sweet chariot

by Tukufu Zuberi

In the early nineteenth century, thousands of emancipated and freeborn African Americans returned to Africa to colonize the area now known as Liberia. In this, the first systematic study of the demographic impact of this move on the migrants, Antonio McDaniel finds that the health of migrant populations depends on the adaptability of the individuals in the group, not on their race. McDaniel compares the mortality rates of the immigrants to those of other migrants to tropical areas. He finds that the interaction of biology and environment is more important for survival in tropical environments than the presumed innate immunological superiority of Africans. Moreover, he shows that though the Liberian immigrants' mortality levels were exceptionally high, their mortality patterns were consistent with those of other populations. McDaniel concludes that the greater the variance between the environment left and the environment entered, the higher the probability of contracting a new disease,